Comments on: Do blogs make reporting restrictions pointless?

By: Cross domain rel=canonical supported by Google » malcolm coles

Cross domain rel=canonical supported by Google » malcolm coles — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:22:32 +0000

[...] I can use it to get my original post on reporting restrictions for bloggers to stop being outranked by the duplicate version on the online journalism blog. *Scowls at [...]

By: Arnold

Arnold — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 10:12:36 +0000

There is another problem for the reporting restrictions to consider which is what to do about blogs that are published outside the country? In that whilst a UK restriction applies to the Times presumably it does not apply to the New York Times, what then is the situation when a website isn't hosted in the UK?

You give the example of google news: why should they follow any UK court order and similarly why would a blog hosted outside the UK follow or be required to follow a UK court order? Obviously you could well have the situation where a blogger could live in the UK but have a blog hosted outside the UK but then that's exactly the same as a New York Times reporter living in the UK but being published in New York.

By: JTownend

JTownend — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:55:30 +0000

Great, thorough post - plenty to follow up on. Thank you. Also reminds me to re-look into this: 'Accredited mediaâ€™ not yet defined, Ministry of Justice tells Journalism.co.uk'

By: David Quinn

David Quinn — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:36:42 +0000

Terrific post, really useful. I published something on my blog about the media coverage of Alfie Patten last Thursday, then decided to take it down on Friday morning after I heard about the reporting restrictions. From what Struan Robertson says, it looks like I did the right thing on the basis that even though I didn't know (and couldn't find out) the exact terms of the court order, I knew roughly what it was about.

This is clearly a daft situation - as long as bloggers can say "I didn't know", it leaves everyone in a potentially uncomfortable legal position.

As for Google News, I expect the court knows but no-one has the time or energy to do anything about it.

By: IanVisits

IanVisits — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:59:00 +0000

Maybe I am being cyncial, or just realistic considering the current administrations love of regulating anything and everything, but I suspect that the governments solution could be to set up such a database, but then to require any person or organisation which seeks to "publish content" to register to access it (for a fee) and amend the law such that failure to check the database (for a fee) is itself contempt.

In effect, a back-door way to force bloggers to be registered with the government.

By: Do blogs make reporting restrictions pointless? | Online Journalism Blog

Do blogs make reporting restrictions pointless? | Online Journalism Blog — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:44:12 +0000

[...] The leaked DNA test on 13-year-old alleged dad Alfie Patten has revealed a big problem with court-ordered reporting restrictions in the internet age. (NB This is a cut down version of a much longer original post on blogging and reporting restrictions). [...]